Future infrastructures

COVID-19 will reshape inevitable the infrastructures industry

The COVID-19 outbreak is testing the resilience of the asset and infrastructure market. Airline, highway and railway assets are in the eye of the storm, while IT, Telco and healthcare gain in relevance. We, therefore,
need to rethink current city planning models for public and private infrastructure.

“We must define new adequate models for our cities of tomorrow based on public and private transportation and active mobility before we are committed to cities influenced only by a car centric development path.“

SAP can actively help planners of these future infrastructures to re-imagine them according to new demands and regulations. SAP can help them obtain insights directly from citizens with Qualtrics and define new analytical solutions (SAP Analytics Cloud) to help predict, plan, build, and maintain these infrastructures (SAP BPC).

Engineering and Construction
COVID-19 is having a significant impact on Engineering and Construction. There may be delays to project construction or disrupted operations. The future will require more flexible and dynamic systems to plan and build infrastructure. We first need to be able to recruit on demand (SAP Fieldglass), taking care of workers health and security. Then, using analytical and predictive tools, we can anticipate demand and optimize our supply chain while ensuring the best portfolio of providers and project collaboration. Above all, we need to analyze in real-time completion times and profitability of deployments.

Travel and Transportation
COVID-19 prompts a severe rethinking of the future of mobility and city planning. Peoples habit will change after lockdown. What means of transportation will we use for work, school, or vacation? Will we use more
IT services for remote work? SAP provides applications to keep remote workers safe, connected and operational.
Current COVID-19 challenges and benefits of active mobility provide new impetus to rethink forms of transportation and city planning. It would be wiser to plan small and medium-sized cities based on public transport and active travel. SAP can help city planners understand the new reality of Travel and Transportation, define new business models for Mobility such as Logistics Business Network or Supply Chain Control Tower taking care of the health of workers and citizens (SAP Health & Safety).

Telecommunications and IT
Post pandemic, we expect the telco industry to thrive, as the world will be more connected and companies better prepared for adversity, and reliable connectivity has become critical. Similarly, users worldwide will be more familiar with digital tools. The need for robotic healthcare workers, biometric virus predictors and AI health management tools will provide new use cases and justification for investment in 5G.
SAP has invested in a telecommunications portfolio with a focus on helping our customer success in a 5G world with new business models, operational efficiencies, and superior customer engagement.